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iPad case maker Gumdrop expects new Apple tablet at WWDC

Given the pre-event buzz, I don't expect Apple to unveil a new iPad at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco next week. But Tim Hickman does. Hickman is the CEO of Gumdrop Cases, and he is

NEW YORK — Given the pre-event buzz, I don't expect Apple to unveil a new iPad at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco next week. But Tim Hickman does.

Hickman is the CEO of Gumdrop Cases, and he is sanguine enough in his prediction that he is taking preorders for iPad 5 cases on the company's website and has already produced 15,000 of them. I've received an early sample, a red "Bounce Skin" model with silicon skin with squishy air-filled chambers.

Hickman concedes that 15,000 cases is not a huge number for company that's doing about ten times as many a month. But it's not insignificant either. "It's not a small bet but it's not betting the farm," he told me over the phone. Hickman's level of confidence, he says, comes from "multiple sources" out of China. (Gumdrop stocks cases in a warehouse in Hong Kong.)

Of course, he hopes to be correct on two counts — the timing of any new iPad release and the actual design of the latest tablet. The sample case that I received won't fit any of the current iPad models and is based on the assumption that a new fifth generation iPad will be thinner and about 25% smaller.

If Hickman is proven right, he will ship out preorders on Wednesday and start to ramp up production to 200,000 or 300,000 units. And if he bets wrong on the design — say the rear camera is on the left not on the right — he says it'll take two to three days to change the mold. Gumdrop claims a strong recent track record in predicting what Apple will do in advance — one big miss, though, was on the iPhone 4S.

"It's worth taking the risk if you can manage the risk," Hickman says. "We won't ship (iPad 5 cases) to retailers until we have the confirmation."

Being first to market is huge for a company like Gumdrop. The tagline next to the presale of the cases on the Gumdrop website is "If you're not first, you're last." Because of sizable margins, Hickman says a brick and mortar retailer can make as much money selling cases as on the iPad hardware itself.

Gumdrop's cases are not sold in physical Apple Stores. "That's why you and I are talking," he says. "I know damn well every (case maker whose products are) in the Apple Store is doing the same as I am, they just wouldn't dare share with the world what they're doing…. It doesn't make friends in Cupertino."

The new cases come in various colors and design types and cost between $34.95 and $59.95. The company vows to replace any cases that do not fit at no charge. Unless you want to keep them around as a collector's item.